If you were to guess which four states were most likely to produce psychopaths, which ones would they be?
According to a study, there are certain places in the US that are more likely to house people with psychopathic tendencies. The study looked into certain rubrics. These broke down how many people from the study group showed signs of narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism.
Around 100 people from each state in the study group were tested. The result showed just which state was most likely to produce people with negative traits. Honestly, the results didn’t surprise me, looking at living conditions, history, and crime rates.
It turns out that Nevada, Louisiana, New York, and Texas show the highest levels of people adjacent to psychopaths.
Blame Society For Psychopathy
Medically, psychopaths have something wrong with the function of their brains. There is a reduced connection with the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. This can be tested in a lab.
However, this test wasn’t about to delve that deep into its 144,576 US test subjects. Instead, they simply looked at the behavioral traits linked with being a psychopath. This gave a rough idea of which state produced the most.
However, many societal influences can be blamed for a certain state’s production of psychopaths or fostering negative human behaviour. For instance, the huge business districts of New York are often populated with awful human beings. To get ahead in business, narcissism, machiavellianism, and sadism are all essential.
In a state like Texas, there is a huge level of inequality, with the super wealthy living side by side with the destitute. These kinds of living conditions in a state can foster many of the traits tested for in the study.
However, it was Nevada that took the prize, scoring highest in all four of the categories studied. This has been widely attributed to the state’s gambling laws. The nature of the state draws in a certain type of person with personality traits that work well with risk-taking and self-confident money spending.
If you’re looking to stay away from these self-obsessed, depressing, unemotional weirdos, head to New Hampshire, where they scored lowest.